Focus: Washington: Trying to do right by health reform

Congressional elections are two weeks away, and Republicans are mildly optimistic that for the first time in half a century they will recapture majorities in both the House and the Senate. Most commentators say that such a change would cripple Bill Clinton's political agenda for the last two years of his term, but a few pundits - Republicans and even Democrats - say that such a “defeat” is Clinton's best chance of reviving health reform in 1995.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out that when a Democratic president has a Democratic congress he can ignore the Republican minority. But when the opposition controls the legislature the president must sit down and do some serious negotiating.

Most Republicans and Democrats are genuinely sorry that some kind of reform did …